Cancer management during the COVID-19 pandemic: Choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea

COVID-19 was declared a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” in March 2020. Since then, drastic measures were implemented to reduce the virus spread. These measures prevented cancer patients from receiving prompt medical care. A delay in testing and treating cancer patients is thought...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Boutros, Marc, Moujaess, Elissar, Kourie, Hampig Raphael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier B.V. 2021
Materias:
Article
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7959683/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33737160
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.critrevonc.2021.103273
Descripción
Sumario:COVID-19 was declared a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” in March 2020. Since then, drastic measures were implemented to reduce the virus spread. These measures prevented cancer patients from receiving prompt medical care. A delay in testing and treating cancer patients is thought to protect them from serious COVID-19 complications but exposes them at the same time to the risk of disease progression and cancer related mortality. Healthcare providers are therefore facing the dilemma of choosing between two unpleasant scenarios. To shed light upon the matter, we present in this review article, based on an extensive search of the literature, an overview of the delay in the management of cancer patients, possible contributors to this delay and its benefits and risks on cancer patients’ health.

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